1. Statement of the Technical Field
The present invention relates to the field of computer speech recognition and more particularly to a method and system for rearranging a voice portal directory menu by flattening the hierarchy of the menu while maintaining and optimizing the usability of the menu.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a user connects to a voice portal, the user is generally presented with a hierarchical menu structure, wherein the user must navigate through a tree of selections, before choosing a voice application, or portlet, as a final selection. Voice portals are often arranged to have directories with such hierarchical menus. To navigate through the menu, the user must listen to each choice for each selection in the menu, submit a response or input to the voice portal, and then proceed to the next, lower level of the hierarchy, where he or she may be presented with a new choice of menu options.
The time-sensitivity of voice portal menus dictates that the entire process of user-interaction with the voice portal be optimized so as to maximize the efficiency of such interaction. To reduce the costs of connecting a user to a voice portal over an extended period of time and to enhance the user experience, it is desirable to make the user's interaction with the voice portal as short as possible. A user must generally navigate through a number of selections before reaching a final choice. Also, if too many choices are presented to a user in one selection, the user may grow bored or may not wish to listen to the entire set of choices, or may become inattentive and thus miss the desired option. Therefore, it would be desirable to shorten the total time taken to reach a final selection. It would be further desirable to limit the number of choices in any one selection.